Publications

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2014
Working Paper

The Unfairness Trap: A Key Missing Factor in the Economic Theory of Discrimination

By: Jordan I. Siegel, Naomi Kodama and Hanna Halaburda

Prior evidence linking increased female representation in management to corporate performance has been surprisingly mixed, due in part to data limitations and methodological difficulties, and possibly to omission of a fairness factor in the economic theory of... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Fairness; Performance Productivity; Gender; Japan

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June 2024
Case

Caesars Entertainment: Governance on the Road to Bankruptcy

By: Kristin Mugford

Caesars Entertainment was a large casino operator in the United States that had been purchased in a 2008 leveraged buyout by Apollo and TPG. In January 2015, Caesars Entertainment Operating Company (CEOC), its largest subsidiary, filed for Chapter 11. This set up a... View Details

Keywords: Gaming; Chapter 11; Fraudulent Conveyance; Apollo; TPG; Bankruptcy; Leveraged Buyouts; Restructuring; Capital Structure; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Private Equity; Financial Management; Lawsuits and Litigation; Negotiation; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Borrowing and Debt; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Las Vegas

13 Dec 2018
Blog Post

Working at the Intersection of Business and Environment

the recent Climate Change Challenge assignment in Technology & Operations Management, a required first-year course taught by Mike Toffel, Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management and BEI... View Details

November 2005 (Revised November 2007)
Case

Meisterchef.com

By: Henry B. Reiling

Two underperforming companies are seeking to combine on terms that will preserve the net operating loss of one for use against their combined future profits or at least against the future profits of the company that generated the losses. The questions are whether the... View Details

Keywords: Code Law; Corporate Governance; Mergers and Acquisitions; Cost Accounting; Taxation; Corporate Strategy; Profit; Crisis Management; Financial Management; Legal Services Industry; Service Industry; United States

Program

Building a Legacy

solutions to your wealth management challenges Develop an action plan for initiating an intergenerational transfer Implement best practices for separating operating assets and family office assets Make key... View Details

December 2019 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Carroll Family Farms

By: Forest Reinhardt, Christian Godwin and James Weber

The Carroll Family, U.S. pig and grain farmers, needed to decide what to plant, whether to purchase land, emphasize pigs or grain, or other investments.

Seven family members across three generations owned and operated Carroll Family Farms (CFF). In... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Operations; Strategy; Family Business; Asset Management; Globalization; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; United States; Brazil; China

2020
Working Paper

Determinants of Early-Stage Startup Performance: Survey Results

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

To explore determinants of new venture performance, the CEOs of 470 early-stage startups were surveyed regarding a broad range of factors related to their venture’s customer value proposition, product management, marketing, technology and operations, financial... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Survey Research; Performance Analysis; Entrepreneurship; Performance; Analysis; Business Startups; Failure; Surveys

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July 2018
Case

Hironobu Tsujiguchi and His Sweet Revolution

By: Boris Groysberg and Naoko Jinjo

Hironobu Tsujiguchi, a Japanese chocolatier, had chosen an unusual path to success as a pastry chef. Instead of spending most of his time in his kitchen and focusing on one or two confectionery categories like most pastry chefs, he chose to work on diverse projects and... View Details

Keywords: Relevance; Entrepreneurship; Diversification; Personal Development and Career; Decision Making; Food and Beverage Industry; Japan

2016
Working Paper

Decision-Making by Precedent and the Founding of American Honda (1948 – 1974)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and John Heilbron

American Honda was founded in 1959 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Honda Motor Company to facilitate sales and distribution in the United States. The details of American Honda’s early history have long served as evidence in debates among scholars and practitioners... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Business Subsidiaries; Decision Making; Auto Industry; Retail Industry; United States

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January 2024
Supplement

Buurtzorg

By: Ethan Bernstein and Tatiana Sandino

As co-founders of home nursing company Buurtzorg, Jos de Blok and Gonnie Kronenberg prized both self-management and organizational learning. Buurtzorg’s 10,000 nurses across 950 neighborhood nursing teams in the Netherlands were empowered to manage themselves, both in... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Management Style; Business Model; Knowledge Dissemination; Learning; Organizational Culture; Health Industry; Netherlands

March 1993 (Revised May 2009)
Case

CF MotorFreight in 1992

By: David B. Yoffie

In June 1992, CFMF management finds that despite a number-two ranking nationwide among long-haul carriers, two smaller rivals are far more profitable for the year-ended 1991. Management confronts the issue of encroaching competition from the country's smaller regional... View Details

Keywords: Labor Unions; Business or Company Management; Distribution; Competition; Consolidation; Truck Transportation

March 2018 (Revised January 2021)
Case

China Vanke: Battle for Control (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Charles C.Y. Wang, Dawn H. Lau and Anthony K. Woo

In June 2016, the board of China Vanke, one of China’s largest and best-known private residential real estate developers, must vote on a proposed acquisition that is opposed by its largest shareholders, state-owned China Resources Co. and the lesser-known property... View Details

Keywords: China Vanke; China Resources; Hostile Takeover; Board Of Directors; Shareholding Structure; Shareholder Rights; Asset Restructuring; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Valuation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Real Estate Industry; China

14 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

Clay Christensen’s Milkshake Marketing

says. He adds that this marketing paradigm comes with the additional benefit of being difficult to rip off. Nobody, for example, has managed to copy IKEA, which helps its customers do the job of furnishing an apartment right now.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Service; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage

29 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

Pride Goeth Before a Profit

At General Motors' Car Assembly Plant in Wilmington, DE, there is a film that managers like to show when times get tough. Dating to 1991, the film opens with a GM executive saying that the plant will be closed in three years. There is no... View Details

Keywords: by Theodore Kinni

26 Sep 2024
HBS Seminar

Garrett Van Ryzin, Columbia & Amazon

August 2023 (Revised September 2023)
Case

T.G.S. Transportation: Battery Electric or Hydrogen?

By: Willy C. Shih

Peter Schneider, the President of T.G.S. Transportation, Inc., faced a choice. His company operated drayage trucks that moved containerized cargo between the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland to customers across the State of California, with a focus on the... View Details

Keywords: Decarbonization; Clean Technology; Energy; Energy Policy; Renewable Energy; Environmental Sustainability; Truck Transportation; Transportation Industry; United States; California

June 2021 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Nissan's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

By: Ananth Raman, William Schmidt and Ann Winslow

In January 2020, Ashwani Gupta took over as COO at Nissan Motor Corporation, and several weeks later, the COVID-19 pandemic began. Nissan’s Business Continuity Plan (BCP) had been key to the resilience of Nissan’s supply chain. It had enabled Nissan to recover from... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Supply Chain Management; Health Pandemics; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Japan; India